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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
• This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
  
  1. They don't notify winners by email.
  2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
  3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
  4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
  5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
  6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
  7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • ggrace.adams8@yahoo.com.hk

Fraud email example:

From: =?big5?q?YAHOO!LOTTERY?= <grace.adams8@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: graceadamms61@yahoo.cn
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:22:27 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Yahoo Congratulate You For Being Their Lucky Winner In January2009


§Ú¦³·sªº¹q¶l¦a§}¡I§A²{¥i¹q¶lµ¹§Ú¡Ggrace.adams8@yahoo.com.hk

Congratulation!

- CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WON &pound;300 000!Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes.Today, your account is randomly selected asthe one of 5 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of (Three Hundred Thousand Great Britian Pounds sterling (300,000) for the month of January.2009.Lottery win promotion which is organized by yahoo messenger.com every month!YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on internet among the millions that subscribe to Online we only select five people every month asour winners through Electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected.All participantwereselected througha computer balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand E-mail addresses from Canada, Australia, United States, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceania as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base.Further more your details(e-mail address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom as indicated in your play-coupon and your prize of &pound;300,000 will be releasedto you from this regional branch office in UK We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high takes for US$1.3 Billion international draw.HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE These are your identification numbersBatchnumber,Lwh09445numbers,BatchnumberLwh09445,Lotto numberLwh09446,WinningnumberLwh09447.To begin your claims, kindly contact our fiduciary agent companyatthis email address:{graceadamms61@yahoo.cn} You are required to forward her with the following details Her name is Grace Adams.1.FULL NAME,2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN,3.PRESENT ADDRESS, 4.SEX,5.DATE OF BIRTH, 6.AGE,7.OCCUPATION,8.TELEPHONE NUMBERS,10.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER,12.THE MONTH YOU WON As soon as you contact her,she will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money.Congratulations once more.For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel Yours Sincerely,SMITH WILLIAMS LOTTO CO-ORDINATOR.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam